Developers are constantly trying to create better ways to model objects to meet the continuing demands from users for more realistic graphics. The realism of rendered graphics often depends on the accuracy of the illumination effects associated with the objects that are being modeled. These illumination effects typically require intensive processing, especially for real-time graphics rendering.
Many of the currently available rendering methods do not effectively account for illumination effects. For example, one existing method uses a low-order spherical harmonic basis for calculating the illumination effects. Because this low-order method only uses a limited number of lighting coefficients, the method is limited to low-frequency lighting and produces only soft shadows for the rendered objects. Another existing method uses single-row (scalar output) transfer matrices to render graphics. This method with scalar output can only effectively render diffuse objects or glossy objects seen from a fixed view.
A graphics rendering technique that can overcome the above-identified deficiencies continues to elude those skilled in the art.